ll at once, at his left,
a tub containing an orange tree, which had been pushed out of its place
and in its place an open aperture.

Ten men would have found difficulty in moving that tub, but by some
mechanical contrivance it had turned with the flagstone on which it
rested.

D'Artagnan, as we have said, perceived a hole in that place and in this
hole the steps of a winding staircase.

He called Porthos to look at it.

"Were our object money only," he said, "we should be rich directly."

"How's that?"

"Don't you understand, Porthos? At the bottom of that staircase lies,
probably, the cardinal's treasury of which folk tell such wonders, and
we should only have to descend, empty a chest, shut the cardinal up in
it, double lock it, go away, carrying off as much gold as we could, put
back this orange-tree over the place, and no one in the world would ever
ask us where our fortune came from--not even the cardinal."

"It would be a happy hit for clowns to make, but as it seems to be
unworthy of two gentlemen----" said Porthos.

"So I think; and therefore I said, 'Were our object money only;' but we
want something else," replied the Gascon.

At the same moment, whilst D'Artagnan was leaning over the aperture
to listen, a metallic sound, as if some one was moving a bag of gold,
struck on his ear; he started; instantly afterward a door opened and a
light played upon the staircase.

Mazarin had left his lamp in the gallery to make people believe that
he was walking about, but he had with him a waxlight, to help him to
explore his mysterious strong box.

"Faith," he said, in Italian, as he was reascending the steps
and looking at a bag of reals, "faith, there's enough to pay five
councillors of parliament, and two generals in Paris. I am a great
captain--that I am! but I make war in my own way."

The two friends were crouching down, meantime, behind a tub in the side
alley.

Mazarin came within three steps of D'Artagnan and pushed a spring in the
wall; the slab turned and the orange tree resumed its place.

Then the cardinal put out the waxlight, slipped it into his pocket, and
taking up the lantern: "Now," he said, "for Monsieur de la Fere."

"Very good," thought D'Artagnan, "'tis our road likewise; we will go
together."

All three set off on their walk, Mazarin taking the middle alley and the
friends the side ones.

The cardinal reached a second door without perceiving he was being
followed; the sand wit